can i improve on this spec

toblarone45 · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:19

hey guys
I've got to spec a tower only for a friend who has a budget of £450-500.

This is for the tower only, needs to include the OS, no peripherals and he won't be overclocking.

It's mainly for general use and is attached to i believe either a 17 or 19 wide screen monitor with i think a resolution of bellow 1440x900 and i think the newest game he has is L4D but that's it.

I've had a look and come up with this:

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939)

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS)

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel (KHX6400D2LLk2/4G)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 Power Supply - Black Nickel

Total : £522.47

He'd really like something a bit cheaper and i was wondering if you guys knew where i could save a few pennies or should i get him just to push the boat out with regard to budget.

Is there a AMD route i could go down or can i save on the motherboard, etc.

Thanks

Kennysevenfold · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:25

my shot..

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £99.99
(£86.95) £99.99
(£86.95)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
(£79.99) £91.99
(£79.99)

Asus M3N78 Pro NVIDIA 8300 SLi (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £73.59
(£63.99) £73.59
(£63.99)

Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK) £57.98
(£50.42) £57.98
(£50.42)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £48.99
(£42.60) £48.99
(£42.60)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK) £33.99
(£29.56) £33.99
(£29.56)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £29.99
(£26.08) £29.99
(£26.08)

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51) £18.99
(£16.51) Sub Total : £431.09 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £66.54 Total : £498.13

toblarone45 · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:35

wow quickly reply thxs

and shaved off about £25

i think i'll head him in this direction. but is it worth dropping down to the 4830 to save even more?

there is also one thing - i think i can build a system reading around on here reading pointers you guys give and i get the most part.

i.e. motherboard doesn't screw onto case - use the little rises provided with the case, thermal paste - although not a problem with stock heatsink i believe.

but ok say everything work and i hit power and it boots into the bios - what do you do in there before you install the OS? if anything - is it like the clock, checking everything "looks" right? or is there more before you boot to the cd install windows, then drivers, etc

Pulse · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:41

Personally I would have said go for the 4830, it's still an amazing card and is marginally behind the 4850.

RJC · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:43

Once the machine is built - donn't forget to install the 4/8 pin for cpu power as well as the 24pin ATX connector.

I do a CMOS reset first, boot into the BIOS and set the CD ROM as first boot device, check memory speed, voltage and timmings save and reboot, but put the windows disc in first.

Kennysevenfold · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:48

yeah just make sure all connectors are firmly in,

in the bios, make sure the dvd, hard drive are picked up

set the boot device priority to dvd - HDD - and then whatever else you want

pop in the xp/vista disk and restart

all self explanitory from there on in mate

toblarone45 · 19 Apr 2009 at 15:59

cool thanks guys

so i guess the BIOS side is more changing the boot order/priority and making sure the HDD and DVD are detected rather than the fiddling with settings (few for i mins i thought i'd have to change RAM latencies or something :eek:

)

spec wise i've combined the 2 and got the price dwn further (dropped to a 4830 as watching a vid on youtube they're almost identical) and kept the RAM pc2 6400 because i read that not all pc2 8500 is detected at 1066 and i'd rather not have to fiddle):

just got to run it by him then fingers crossed could try building and cable management

Kennysevenfold · 19 Apr 2009 at 16:02

toblarone45 said:
cool thanks guys so i guess the BIOS side is more changing the boot order/priority and making sure the HDD and DVD are detected rather than the fiddling with settings (few for i mins i thought i'd have to change RAM latencies or something )

spec wise i've combined the 2 and got the price dwn further (dropped to a 4830 as watching a vid on youtube they're almost identical) and kept the RAM pc2 6400 because i read that not all pc2 8500 is detected at 1066 and i'd rather not have to fiddle):

just got to run it by him then fingers crossed could try building and cable management

Looks good man, yeah you only have to fiddle in the bios if you overclocking or something goes wring/not detected etc

everything should be automatically detected and configured.

RJC · 19 Apr 2009 at 16:15

The kingston runs @ 1.9v with timmings of 4-4-4-12, these would need to be manualy entered at the BIOS, the machine will boot but will use default settings.

Kennysevenfold · 19 Apr 2009 at 16:26

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 810 2.6GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £156.39
(£135.99) £156.39
(£135.99)

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11127-03-20R) £49.44
(£42.99) £49.44
(£42.99)

OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent ATX2 Power Supply £44.99
(£39.12) £44.99
(£39.12)

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) £41.39
(£35.99) £41.39
(£35.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £29.99
(£26.08) £29.99
(£26.08)

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51) £18.99
(£16.51) Sub Total : £431.66 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £66.51 Total : £509.92

toblarone45 · 21 Apr 2009 at 08:28

Hey all
Sorry to drag this up again but I've spoken to the guy i'm building for and found out a few things that might change the spec.

His monitor is 1440x900 and has a copy of Windows XP media center edition which he would be quite happy to use.

So with that in mind and a max budget of £500 i've come up with this:
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Asus M4A78 PRO AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Corsair HX 450W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-450HXUK)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)

Total : £494.29

is there anything obvious i've missed or anything totally incompatible? we can recover his IDE DVD drive so will be using that and i'm guessing using AM2+/3 it should also be a tad more "future proof"?

OVC · 21 Apr 2009 at 09:05

Kennysevenfold said:
my shot..

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £99.99
(£86.95) £99.99
(£86.95)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
(£79.99) £91.99
(£79.99)

Asus M3N78 Pro NVIDIA 8300 SLi (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £73.59
(£63.99) £73.59
(£63.99)

Corsair VX 450W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-450VXUK) £57.98
(£50.42) £57.98
(£50.42)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £48.99
(£42.60) £48.99
(£42.60)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK) £33.99
(£29.56) £33.99
(£29.56)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £29.99
(£26.08) £29.99
(£26.08)

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51) £18.99
(£16.51) Sub Total : £431.09 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £66.54 Total : £498.13

There is only one thing I would change on this and that is the OS, the Premium Edition is... how can I put this in simple terms. Crap, sorry to say this but the Premium Edition is limited and you would be better off saving up a little more of your budget and buying this instead. I mean we are only talking an extra £65.00 which considering it's not that much to spend I would go for the Ultimate Edition and pay the extra.

32-Bit http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-040-MS&groupid=33&catid=20&subcat=

64-Bit http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-041-MS&groupid=33&catid=20&subcat=

eGu_Ryan · 21 Apr 2009 at 09:37

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx

I think you'll find that Ultimate Edition is not worth the extra cash.

Anywho you should just go for Windows 7 Beta until it runs out, saves you abit of cash until it is released.

With the money that you are saving I would go for Kenny's build and put the extra cash towards a 4850.

ro55o · 21 Apr 2009 at 09:48

OVC said:
There is only one thing I would change on this and that is the OS, the Premium Edition is... how can I put this in simple terms. Crap, sorry to say this but the Premium Edition is limited and you would be better off saving up a little more of your budget and buying this instead. I mean we are only talking an extra £65.00 which considering it's not that much to spend I would go for the Ultimate Edition and pay the extra.

Everyone else here seems to get on fine with it, including myself. I don't see why you need the extras on ultimate (which from looking at the table is premium + business, so if you don't run a small business, whats the point) and spend an extra £65 in the process, which can basically go on a better CPU or graphics card. Which in my view is far superior to an OS with a few extra features.

ro55o · 21 Apr 2009 at 09:52

toblarone45 said:
Hey all
Sorry to drag this up again but I've spoken to the guy i'm building for and found out a few things that might change the spec.

His monitor is 1440x900 and has a copy of Windows XP media center edition which he would be quite happy to use.

So with that in mind and a max budget of £500 i've come up with this:
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Asus M4A78 PRO AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Corsair HX 450W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-450HXUK)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)

Total : £494.29

is there anything obvious i've missed or anything totally incompatible? we can recover his IDE DVD drive so will be using that and i'm guessing using AM2+/3 it should also be a tad more "future proof"?

It looks good to me, definitely an improvement over the 7750 and is slightly more future proof, it is still an AM2+ motherboard and DDR2 ram, but the CPU is AM3 and can be transferred to an AM3 motherboard and DDR3 at a later date.

Spooter · 21 Apr 2009 at 11:41

There is only one thing I would change on this and that is the OS, the Premium Edition is... how can I put this in simple terms. Crap, sorry to say this but the Premium Edition is limited and you would be better off saving up a little more of your budget and buying this instead. I mean we are only talking an extra £65.00 which considering it's not that much to spend I would go for the Ultimate Edition and pay the extra.

32-Bit http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...tid=20&subcat=

64-Bit http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...tid=20&subcat=

Ultimate is not worth the extra cash no way! Most people wouldn't notice the difference.

Audigex · 21 Apr 2009 at 12:29

That AMD build looks nice now he can save the cash on the OS. One concern is whether it has the ability to use an IDE DVD drive, although I think I can spot one on the product picture?

Edit: Okay, you can zoom in on the pictures! Yeah, should be fine.

danielmp007 · 21 Apr 2009 at 15:24

Kennysevenfold said:
Product Name Qty Price Line Total

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 810 2.6GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £156.39
(£135.99) £156.39
(£135.99)

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11127-03-20R) £49.44
(£42.99) £49.44
(£42.99)

OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent ATX2 Power Supply £44.99
(£39.12) £44.99
(£39.12)

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) £41.39
(£35.99) £41.39
(£35.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £29.99
(£26.08) £29.99
(£26.08)

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51) £18.99
(£16.51) Sub Total : £431.66 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £66.51 Total : £509.92

This, but just out of interest, why did you not go for the 940 cpu as its only £4 more?

DP

EDIT: Sorry, I meant the 920

ro55o · 21 Apr 2009 at 16:25

danielmp007 said:
This, but just out of interest, why did you not go for the 940 cpu as its only £4 more?

DP

EDIT: Sorry, I meant the 920

The 920 is socket AM2+, the 810 is AM3.